Tim Dover, Author at Coastal Board Gamers

Event #147 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 11:51:00 +0000

Building a board gaming community. Here are the games we played, lots of variety across the tables.

Res Arcana

Orleans

Barcelona

The Quest for El Dorado

Aberration

Maracaibo

Splendor

Jamaica

Sniper Elite: The Board Game

Qwirkle

Skyrise

Faraway

Thunder Road: Vendetta – Maximum Chrome

Brass: Birmingham

Star Realms: Frontiers

Trust Me, I’m a Doctor

Trust Me, I’m a Superhero

Moon Colony Bloodbath

Event Report by Jimmy

Before I get into tonight’s games, I just want to take a moment to talk about something that means a lot to me: community, friendship, and looking out for one another.
One of the things I love most about this club of ours is seeing just how much those things thrive here. We come together because we love board games, but I think what we’ve created is something that goes far beyond simply sitting around a table and playing games.
Some of you may have noticed the shirt I was wearing tonight. On the front it said:
“You are enough.”
And on the back:
“Dear person behind me, the world is a better place with you in it. Love, the person in front of you.”
I genuinely believe that every single one of us has value and something special to offer this world. Sometimes, though, life gets difficult and it can be incredibly easy to lose sight of that. We can become so caught up in our own struggles that we forget that the people around us may be carrying struggles of their own.

Tonight, Lillian came up to me and said that she really liked my shirt. It seems like such a small thing, but it opened the door to a conversation. We ended up talking about some of the struggles I’ve been going through, and about how, in one way or another, everyone has their own battles that we may know nothing about.
It reminded me just how important it is to reach out to people and let them know that they matter. Sometimes, a simple conversation, a kind word, a laugh across a game table, or just someone taking the time to ask how you’re doing can mean far more than they probably realise.
We all come together at CBG to play games, have a laugh, learn new games, and enjoy each other’s company. But tonight reminded me that it means so much more than that.
So, to everyone who played a game with me tonight, shared a laugh around the table, or simply spent some time with me — thank you.

And to those who reached out to me tonight, whether you knew how much it meant or not: you know who you are. I appreciate you more than I can probably put into words. Look after each other, people. Sometimes all it takes is a little kindness to make someone’s day, or even remind them that they’re not alone.

Here’s my quick rundown of tonight’s games:

Orleans
🥇 Narelle
🥈 Tim
🥉 Jimmy
4️⃣ Carl J

Flip 7 With a Vengeance — Game 1
🥇 Carl J

Flip 7 With a Vengeance — Game 2
🥇 Zach
A special thank you to our new players, Zac and Jeremy, for jumping straight into the chaotic fun with us! It was great having you join in.

🏃 Magical Athlete Tournament
Race 1
🥇 Lillian — Centaur
🥈 Michelle — Scoocher
Race 2
🥇 Jimmy — Leapfrog
🥈 Lillian — Rocket Scientist
Race 3
🥇 Michelle — Flip Flop
🥈 Alex — Banana
Race 4
🥇 Alex — Cheerleader
🥈 Jimmy — Twins (aka Centaur)
🏆 Overall Scores
🥇 Alex — 14 points — takes home the tournament ribbon! 🎉
🥈 Jimmy — 8 points
🥉 Lillian — 6 points
4️⃣ Michelle — 5 points

Man, that Lovable Loser is OP, Alex!

Moon Colony Bloodbath
🧑‍🚀 Jimmy (Dr Dibson) — 30 Colonists
🧑‍🚀 Alex (Dr Brain) — 23 Colonists
🧑‍🚀 Dave (Dr Banerjee) — 21 Colonists
🧑‍🚀 Michelle (Dr White) — 17 Colonists
💀 Lillian (Dr Kaneko) — Eliminated

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Event #144 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 07:24:28 +0000

Classic and contemporary games of many different types came out at this event. There was lots of fun at the tables interesting discussion over dinner. Look at the range of games in use on the night:

Roll Camera!

Monster Hunter World: The Board Game

Aberration

The Quest for El Dorado

It’s a Wonderful World

Heat: Rocky Roads

The Guild of Merchant Explorers

Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness

Pyramido

7 Wonders

Thunder Road: Vendetta – Maximum Chrome

Kingdomino

Raptor

CBG AGM & Awards dinner
6pm Saturday the 29th of August.
Hosted at Ulverstone RSC – 21 King Edward St, Ulverstone
$20 per-person for a 3-course meal, catered by Zoe’s at the RSC
Invitations coming soon, We hope to see you there!!!

Event Report from Mike

For everyone who missed CBG last night, you missed out on fun times!

We had a game of Roll Camera – a fun (and silly) game about making a movie. The goal is to shoot 5 movie scenes, and we all took on the roll of Director, Star, Editor, etc..

We nearly ran out of scheduling time and money; on our last dollar we took a gamble- flip a tile 3 times and if we flipped it the right side up twice, gain $4. We rolled it good side, then bad, and after a drum roll… good again! Phew, gambling saved our movie budget.

The player roles also gave a silly “special powers” which has no bearing on the game itself, but leads hilarious role playing. One role lets you direct players to talk faster/slower or in an accent. Another lets you tell players to “shhhh” – be quiet – as if filming on a movie set. Another role lets you ask players to hold “props”, and I found myself holding random Drink coasters and rulebooks in the air (as directed), and it all came to a head with Oakley being asked to hold a chair physically over the table. 🤣 To his credit, he did it. Did it help our game? No… but everyone was laughing.

Back to the game, we decided we couldn’t make a quality masterpiece, so we tanked the quality and ended the game winning by making a movie “so bad it’s good”.

Our hypothetical movie title was “lethal seaside smooches”… coming to a theatre near you.

Note: no chairs were damaged in the playing of this game.

Thanks for reading and hope you had some laughs at our play of Roll Camera! 😂

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Event #142 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 08:15:48 +0000

The first event following Meeple Escape was well attended. Lots of different games hit the tables, here are some highlights.

Labyrinth: Chronicles looks stunning with 3D walls and character miniatures. This beloved game now not only looks good but has a co-op campaign adventure with hidden components and challenges to unlock as the story unfolds. Check in with Talita if you would like to give this one a try.

This is the list of games we played:

Blokus 3D

Fantastic Factories

Carcassonne

Kingdomino

7 Wonders

Labyrinth: Chronicles

Penguins Pool Party

Skull

Unfair

Mysterium

Sushi Go Party

Barbecubes

Yura Yura Penguin

Thunder Road: Vendetta

Fake Artist

Galactic Cruise

Century: Golem Edition

Harmonies

Skull King

Rush Hour

Game Report from Hobbo

To no one’s surprise, Thunder Road Vendetta makes another appearance here at CBG game night.

Our first race, which consists of new comer Ben and returning racers Maurice, Zac and Hobbo there were many spills, thrills and bad rolls allowing Maurice to win the race.

Race 2 had John taking over for Zac and new comer David D taking over for Ben. Unfortunately Dave didnt survive pass the second map and Hobbo was finished off by John, by the end it was a two horse race, with John taking the win.

Race 3 had Chris take over for John and Dave staying for round 2. After many smashes, crashes, failed jumps and Dave being taken out so close to the finishing line, Chris ended up taking the win.

Narelle played a teaching game of Galactic Cruise with Jim, Mel, and Tim. The depth of theme baked into this game is incredible. Using all the different action areas, cards, tiles and resources feels like building and launching a cruise in space. Once the ship is prepared and resourced the Cruise Coordinator uses Ads to attract guests who buy tickets for the flight. Once launched the guests visit the rooms and buy from onboard shops while cruising the stars, producing various types of income. When guests land on planets, we can film Ads of their experience to gain coveted victory points.

This is a long game but the thematic experience is lots of fun. Thanks, Narelle, for teaching us and congratulations Mel for winning your first game.

The next CBG Regular Event will be on 20/06/2026 at Apex House. Come and join in the fun afternoon and evening with us.

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Event #140 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 02 May 2026 10:22:00 +0000

Thunder Road: Vendetta was played multiple times. The expansion Carnage at Devil’s Run adds the ability for cars to be set on fire!

My game with Dave, Jake and Zac lived up the promise of high-speed carnage. I deployed my orange helicopter twice, shooting at Dave, the race leader even when my cars were way behind. On the final space of the race Dave was about to win when he triggered an earthquake and his car was destroyed by being knocked into an outcrop of rocks! Two other cars were also wrecked in the earthquake. I was able to destroy all remaining cars, taking the win as last one standing.

Here are the games played at this event:

First Class

Thunder Road: Vendetta

Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game

Paperback

Pirates!

Everdell Emerland

Formaggio

Jigsaw Puzzle

Catan

Liar’s UNO

Forest Shuffle

Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time

The Quest for El Dorado

Game Report from Jim

Tonight I had the opportunity to bask in absolute glory as I whomped a veteran Everdell player, in the brand new ‘Everdell Emerland’. This would be Mel Beard. It wasn’t even close. All game me and Dave Dawkins copped trash talk across the table from this one, and we just had to cop it on the chin. Scores were revealed at the end, and someone had to eat their words, and everyone knew about it.

Ok, that’s enough rubbing it in.

It was a great game, the new Artisan cards, Artifacts and exploring the Jungle Ruins were really cool and upgraded resources were a nice touch too. I also got the opportunity to play Formaggio with Lawrence, Dave Dawkins and Narelle who also taught the game. A great game about cheese and wine aging with a revolving cheese wheel in the middle. Narelle taught this one wonderfully.

I also got to try out Thunder Road Vendetta, which was taught by Hobbo. The highlight of the game was me, Ronen and Hobbo smashin’ each other to bits, while Maurice was casually driving up the side minding his own business. With Hobbo, Ronen and me having 1 car left, I accidentally set off an earthquake which eliminated all 3 of us. This left Maurice as the last one standing, who pulled of a ‘Stephen Bradbury’ for the win.

Meeple Escape ticket sales have now closed. Our next regular event will be at Apex House on 16th May 2026. See the details here.

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Event #138 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 10:26:50 +0000

Meeple Escape tickets are hot! So, get into as many games as possible to prepare 😀

Scythe: The Rise of Fenris

Orléans

Heat: Pedal to the Metal

The Quest for El Dorado

Fort

Thunder Road: Vendetta

Get Stacked

Five Crowns

12 Rivers

Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest

Machi Koro 2

Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game

Guillotine

Skull King

Bites

High Society

Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness

Hamburg

Chameleon

Root

Thunder Road: Vendetta was played twice and produced lots of action. Cars were bunched up close together with speed then… smash – crash, leaving all 3 large vehicles damaged! Was a struggle to the end with Hobbo finding it difficult to keep any cars on the road. Gwyn managed to evade destruction and speed off for the win.

Orléans is a bag builder with lots of ways to generate points. Narelle’s deluxe components added to the fun of having so many tokens in the bag. Monks are wild but they do tend to leave for pilgrimages, so I found out not to depend on them too much. Dave had played before, Maurice and I were learning. This is an interesting game with a fascinating tempo. This is definitely a game that has to be tried once to learn then played again knowing the rhythm and feel.

Game Report by Mel

First game of 8 in the Rise of Fenris campaign, and I’ve drawn Saxony for the whole campaign (the wolf faction) 🐺

Thanks to Mike for bringing and teaching us this. I’m embarrassed to say that I unfortunately handed Haydn an easy win with 2 stars in the last turn 🫢 while I got a woeful 2 stars out total. But I still didn’t come last (thanks, Carl). Look out in game 2, Haydn. Count down to game 2 in 3.. 2.. 1..

For the second game I formed a quick alliance with Mike, gaining myself his river walking workers ability along with 9 coins. Score! In true Mel fashion I once again handed over the win, but to Carl this time, by not moving fast enough to steal his massive pile of resources that were ripe for the picking. Thankfully, I managed 2nd place this time. I think there was a 4th person in the game..? Who knows?

For my final game of the night, Narelle introduced Colin, Gwyn, Tim, Hobbo and myself to her new party game ‘Get Stacked’. This game is full of hilarious mini-games which left me laughing so hard I cried at the sheer ridiculousness of turning up to a board game night just to compete for who can catapult a pencil off the edge of a table into a box more than 2 feet away in the least amount of turns. The answer is Gwyn – in 2 turns. Ultimately though I took the win in the end by a point… does that make up for my abysmal Scythe performances?

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Event #132 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 10:22:24 +0000

2026 is off to a big start. Games old and new, short and long hit the table.

Sniper Elite: The Board Game was out for the second week in a row and was drawing quite a crowd. ‘Hidden movement’ makes this game very interesting to watch as spectators can participate, trying to find the snipers location. If you see this game in action, have a look and join in trying to spot the sneaky hero. See more about this in Mike’s report below.

Here is the list of games that were played:

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
The Quest for El Dorado
Sanctuary
Sniper Elite: The Board Game
Labyrinth
Tokaido
The Fox in the Forrest
Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness
Coup
Machi Koro 2
Expancity
River of Gold
Castle Combo
Barbecubes
Agricola
Ravensburger Puzzle
Kingdomino
Forest Shuffle
Hues and Clues
That’s Not a Hat

Gaming Report from Mike

Last Night’s CBG was great fun. Thanks to Dave for teaching more people how to play Sniper Elite – that was great fun, and Carl is banned from playing it again after a 5 turn victory. 😜

Later I had some fun games of the new dexterity game “Barbecubes” with Amie… and Amie won both games.
Next time I won’t have so much caffeine before playing it. 🤣

I’m already looking forward to the next CBG. 😎

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Event #131 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 08:51:50 +0000

Twas the game night before Christmas. Not many were out. A few focused players setup with care and enjoyed many adventures through the evening fair.

Lords of Waterdeep

Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China

Splendor: Marvel

Drop Drive

It’s a Wonderful World

Bad Company

Carcassonne

The Quest for El Dorado

River of Gold

Barbecubes

Coup

Piles! A Fast-Paced Free-For-All

Ahoy

Drop Drive has the tag line, “Instant Space… Infinite Possibilities!” Fly around a random galaxy collecting the valuable asteroids and deliver them to planets. Along the way collect specimens of alien life, give passengers a ride, and install ship upgrades. The pesky pirates are always stealing all the good stuff so arm weapons, fight them and take it back. Visit a monolith to open up new unknown elements, adding new components and challenges to the game. This pick-up and deliver game also includes set collection, strategic movement, dice combat and variable field of play.

In our game, Jared had the slowest ship but advanced weapons. A monolith encounter revealed a hidden orange planet with exceptional resources. Jared used this to great advantage for a big win.

Dave’s new game is River of Gold. This reminded me of Lords of Waterdeep which was being played on another table at the same time. It has a similar mechanic where players pay to construct upgraded buildings at the ports. Ships that sail to the port get a reward, the owner of the port buildings also gets a reward.

The placement of the ports along the river are interesting, a ship will often benefit from up to 4 ports at once. This makes the game move quite quickly. The depth of game in such a short play time was impressive.

Next event will be New Years Eve, playing from 2pm to 2am – bring in the new year with Coastal Board Gamers! There will be play-to-win games at this exciting event.

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Event #129 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 09:19:51 +0000

“Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles” (Bernard Suits)

On 15/11/2025 there were plenty of unnecessary obstacles to voluntarily overcome, here are some of them.

Piles! A Fast-Paced Free-For-All
Skull
Wicked: The Game
Solar Storm
The Guild of Merchant Explorers
Catan
Frostpunk: The Board Game
Project L
Skyrise
Carcassonne
Magic: The Gathering
High Society
Bites
Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time
Distilled
Coup
Karuba
It’s a Wonderful World
Spellwards

Exploding Kittens

Zac and Dave played Frostpunk: The Board Game over amongst the ice and snow. Building their colony, ready to survive whatever disaster may come. They endured a massive storm but were running out of time. Dave said their was no choice other than to work their citizens extra hard to finish with a win.

Talk to Zac if you would like to give this game a go 🙂

Next event will be on 6th December, see the details here.

Looking for something to do on New Years Eve? Join us to play games from 2pm to 2am over new years!

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Event #124 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 11:38:25 +0000

Here are the games we played at the second event of August:

Ahoy
Brass: Lancashire
The Isle of Cats
On the Underground
Catan
Lazy Samurai (playtest)
Splendor Duel
Blockbuster
The Oregon Trail
The Castles of Burgundy
Hive
Coffee Rush
Heat: Pedal to the Metal
Flip 7

The Oregon Trail Card Game with Jimmy would have the be one of the toughest games. I sat down at the table and was greeted by someone saying, “you want to die of dysentery?” Even crossing a river causes death, and there are lots or rivers! Well I suppose that is what you get when the games most common endpoint is – Write your name on a tombstone.

Thanks for the adventure! The gameplay was simple but compelling and interesting. There was lots of player interaction with a full set of 6 travelers. If only we could help each other survive.

Remember there is only one event next month – September 13th.

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Event #123 Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 10:59:54 +0000

“I like how varied CBG events are. A huge, epic game of Eclipse last week, compared to some small, relaxed 2 player games of Gentle Rain this week. The experiences of each CBG Event are so different but each enjoyable in their own way.” – Mike

Here are the fantastic games that made it to the table this week at CBG!

A Gentle Rain
Gold West
Root
The Quest for El Dorado
Mystic Vale
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
Flip 7
Abandon all Artichokes
Moon River
Imperium Horizons
Dragon Wood
Guillotine
Ship Shape
Vaalbara
Kingdom Rush
Robin Hood
The Castles of Burgandy
Blokus 3D
Ink
Bagh Chal

Game Report – Kingrom Rush – Josh

Some may have noticed, or even participated in, the Kingdom Rush Board Game I have been bringing to some events. It’s a Kickstarter that I’ve had for awhile, and I played a few games way back when we were at Fuschia Fantasy. This year I decided it was going on my 10×10 and I was going to play through the campaign (conveniently 10 scenarios).

It’s going surprisingly well, as we completed the 4th scenario this last event. There were a couple of intense rounds, as we all had to think hard and work together to find the best way to vanquish the hordes. But everyone had fun and so far I’ve had a different set of 3 join me each game, with all of them enjoying the game and finding something they really liked about it.

Let this be an example, it sometimes pays to get out that game you’ve had awhile or aren’t sure anyone will like. If you’d like to join me, I’m generally playing after dinner once a month and I’m putting the games up on After game, so you can dibs a seat if you’d like.

Phil, Henry, Michael, and Zac look for the lost gold in a game of Quest for El Dorado. Master map builder, Henry, drafted a challenging landscape full of fast waters, haunted mountain ranges and crocodile infested swamps. Well done Zac for making it through first!

Mel’s Game Report

Had another wonderful night last night. After dragging Laura along (who was hardly kicking and screaming), we decided to join Dave D and another newcomer, Stephen, in a game of Gold West.

I got off to a bit of a rocky start. With Dave taking an early lead and Laura soon overtaking him, I was feeling a bit left behind, even finding my way onto the dreaded wanted list. However, my patience in collecting metals paid off as I fulfilled a number of contracts cinching me the game with the only score to break 100.

Laura and I followed this game up with a game of Imperium Horizons taught by Jared. Wow, what a game! Choosing our unique civilisations from a list that I’m sure was 20+ long, I was immediately impressed by the potential replay-ability. This was coupled with the seemingly endless deck of cards to choose from the middle of the table to add to our own decks. While I’m not usually a fan of deck builders this one soon drew me in as it became more and more apparent as the game went on that the synergy between cards was more complex than I expected, and I was intrigued into finding the best combinations possible to exploit for more points and better cards (which ultimately won me the game).

I finished off the night with Talita playing the most amazing little game from L’nett’s collection of ancient 2 player games from around the world. I fell in love with these so quickly that I showed them online to @Cliff as soon as I got home (who tried to keep a level head but also became quite enamoured by them). I am now officially broke as I promptly emptied my bank account to purchase the first 2 sets for us to enjoy with a cup of tea. Thanks for introducing me to them and thanks everyone for another great night at CBG!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCMENT

The next 2 months have some date changes for our regular events. Please check the What’s Happening page, Discord Events or Aftergame Events for the new event dates.

The CBG Awards Dinner tickets are now available for purchase. Tickets can be purchased regular CBG Events, DUE TO THE ABOVE, please remember to purchase your tickets on 9th or 23rd of August. For more information regarding the CBG Awards Dinner please visit our What’s Happening page.

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